1997 King-Size
Platform: Apple Macintosh
Streetbeat was a breakdance themed title inspired by old arcade titles such as “Breakdance”, as well as TV and computer games of the early 80s. In particular, the influence of Commodore 64 titles and the style of Activision is very clear in both presentation and feel.
We originally believed this to be a C64 game, but it was more of a tribute in certain ways and a game which certainly could have been a C64 game. It’s been in the GTW64 archives for years, but its time it was finally removed out and made into its own proper entry as intended (thanks to Anonymous Contributor for flagging up).
Johan Boije from the Swedish Royal Academy of Arts made the game for their final exam in free art in 1996-97. The game was thoroughly made and produced in an arcade cabinet and shown complete with a real colour box and manual at an art convention in Sweden.
Although originally assumed to be a C64 project, Streetbeat was in fact fully developed on an Apple Macintosh using Director, with the arcade cabinet effectively housing Mac hardware to give the illusion of a dedicated machine. Despite this, the end result looked extremely convincing and captured the aesthetic of a mid 80s arcade experience remarkably well.
A preserved clip from Swedish TV show Musikmagasinet (ZTV, 1997) shows the game in action, with creators Mika Pollack and Johan Boije demonstrating gameplay and discussing the project:
From the footage, Streetbeat is revealed to be a competitive breakdance battle game where players have 30 seconds to perform as many moves as possible. Timing and complexity of moves are key, with an emphasis on style and execution. The design deliberately emulates 1984, both visually and musically, blending the look of a C64 game with arcade presentation.
Here are some key extracts from the video:
“Mika Pollack and Johan Boije wanted, as a final year project at Beckman’s College of Design in Stockholm, create something nobody had ever created before. Somebody came up with the idea of doing a video game and the result was this: Streetbeat, a breakdance battle in an ’80s suit.”
[Pollack talks about the game and plays with one hand]
“So, this is breakdance battle, where the aim is to do as many different moves as possible. Each player has 30 seconds to do so, and now Johan is playing here. You need to time the moves and do the flashiest moves, in the most advanced way possible.”
[Various vintage breakdance clips]
“Streetbeat is the game that should have appeared already in 1984. Everything is made from how things looked and sounded back then. At first, Mika and Johan thought they were the first to create a breakdance game. But after having looked into things a bit more closely, they found that someone had tried before. The quality of these games are, however, far lower both graphically and gameplay-wise.
Streetbeat is sadly not available in shops. There are no plans to try to sell the game to a publisher, either.”
The soundtrack appears to make use of sampled snippets from classic funk and hip hop tracks such as “White Lines” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and “Hey You” by Rock Steady Crew, helping reinforce the early 80s atmosphere. This use of samples would later become one of the barriers to any potential commercial release due to licensing.
The game was credited to “King-Size”, likely a fictional label created for the project, with Pollack and Boije operating under the names Acne and HW-MR. The cabinet, branding and overall presentation further reinforced the illusion of a fully realised commercial product.
Despite interest from companies at the time, Streetbeat was never released. The Macintosh market was relatively small for this type of title, and significant additional work would have been required to complete the game for commercial standards, including new music and further content.
Johan Boije spoke to Games That Weren’t many years ago (probably around 2001) about work on Streetbeat:
“This happens to be the game that I and my good friend Mika made and programmed for the final project at Beckmans School of Design -97. So I guess I am the one to answer your questions :-) First of all both you (and the magazine that you got the info from) got it a bit wrong, the name of the game wasn’t breakdance or breakdance 2 it was StreetBeat (from the breakdance film Beat street, a film that inspired us).
Also this was not a C64 game although highly inspired from commodore graphics it was actually a mac game made in director. So the game console that we made was a bit “fake” in the meaning that we just put a Macintosh inside of it and connected it to the console screen. But it looked really convincing. The game was a real success and we got a lot of cred for it.
People still talk about the game despite the fact it was made four years ago. There was also some companies that approached us and wanted to buy the game. But we didn’t think it was worth the effort to finish the game (it would need some more programming, more characters and the game used loops that we didn’t have rights to so we would have to compose new music also) because they wouldn’t pay us enough.
Then both of us also had started to work (me in advertising and mika as a graphic designer) so we sort of forgot the game. We have on occasions lent the game to clubs or exhibitions. But now the console is taken into pieces and rests in my attic.
The software is still playable though if you have a mac that is. The controls are a bit odd because it was specially made for the console, but as I said you can still play it. I’ve also tried to port it to shockwave so you could play it online. I haven’t been totally successful, my programming skills are a bit bad. But I don’t think it is impossible to do this with a little bit of help. It would be quite large though mostly because of the music, I think maybe 2-3 Mb. Uncompressed the game is about 20 megs. Anyway It was fun to see that the good old game is still alive and that you noticed it. If you have any more questions I would be happy to answer them.”
There is nothing to play currently, and although the game was essentially finished as a student project, it never progressed further. The original arcade cabinet has since been dismantled and stored, though the software itself is believed to still exist in a playable form on Macintosh systems. Perhaps some day it could be dug out to add to the archive here? We’ll certainly try!
Today, both creators have continued successful careers. Mika Pollack has worked within the games industry, including roles at MAG Interactive and running his own company, The Circle, alongside teaching. Johan Boije has moved into the visual effects industry and works with Important Looking Pirates VFX.
If the game or any materials ever resurface, it would certainly be a fantastic piece to preserve properly. For now, it remains a memorable and well documented lost project.
With thanks to Johan Boije, Mikael Backlund and Anonymous Contributor for the additional information and research.
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